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Dogen again

the moon
beyond this peak
is not my companion on this hill
it must return
to cast its light on the floating world

Doing what we do here is practising poverty. Mendicants, beggars, floating forms, as we sit, Thusness is reflected. Don't fool yourself thinking it is yours. Don't believe you have got it, and it can be spoken about, owned and tagged, put into a treasure box. Of course, a free heart can sing it so well. In fact awakening and words can be one. But the clinging is extra. You see Dogen in the end of the Fukanzazengi speaks of a treasure box but not of a box that closes...Listen, he says the treasure house will open of itself for you to use it as you wish and of course, this you is not anymore the you you are used to, the you that uses things, the you as opposed to me and them, box is open, self is open and everything else has vanished. The moon cannot be known,awakening is not something to toy with, it is the selfless action, the subtle doing of undoing. It cannot be self conscious. The floating world, ephemeral, full of vanity and deception is dressed in moonlight, the very transient and fragile and broken world around you is touched by this radiance, unconditionnal radiance, faceless, flowing everywhere. Destitutes, filth, darkness: all corners are lifted and unveiled. It returns there because it belongs there. The floating world is nothing but the body of the true Tathagata. For filthy eyes, it is just soiled and trashed. For naked eyes, it is perfect, round and clear.

Thank you Taigu, on this lesson of mooning the world, enjoyed your perspective here.

In the opening verse by Dogen (not that it matters, Taigu's lesson is served well), is it from a perspective of an enlightened master of his own fully realized Self (or am i thinking to much into it here)? When he says from the mt. top (fully enlightened) and at that ultimate level of realization, no moon is needed he already is all there Is, and the moon and the world, would be better served if it got back to mooning the distressed world of unenlightened beings.

The moon cannot be known,awakening is not something to toy with, it is the selfless action, the doing of undoing. It cannot be self conscious. The floating world, ephemeral, full of vanity and deception is dressed in moonlight, the very transient and fragile and broken world around you is touched by this radiance, unconditionnal radiance, faceless, flowing everywhere. Destitutes, filth, darkness: all corners are lifted and unveiled. It returns there because it belongs there. The floating world is nothing but the body of the Tathagata. For filthy eyes, it is just soiled and trashed. For naked eyes, it is perfect, round and clear.

I'm stunned.

Sometimes you amaze me Taigu.

I think I read that ten times. A lot of Zen distilled into a few lines. So true, so beautiful, so reassuring.

Thank you,
Gassho,
Pontus

Somehow I was reminded of this poem by Dongshan:

Not falling into being or non-being--do you really understand this?
Everyone longs to leave the flux of life,
not just to live in some perfect harmony,
but to return and sit by the charcoal fire.

For whom do you bathe and make yourself beautiful?
The voice of the cuckoo is calling you home.
Hundreds of flowers fall, yet that voice is not stilled;
even deep in jumbled mountains, it is calling clearly.

In a spring outside time, flowers bloom on a withered tree;
you ride a jade elephant backwards, chasing the winged dragon-deer;
now as you hide far beyond innumerable peaks--
the white moon, a cool breeze, the dawn of a fortunate day.

In a spring outside time, flowers bloom on a withered tree;
you ride a jade elephant backwards, chasing the winged dragon-deer;
now as you hide far beyond innumerable peaks--
the white moon, a cool breeze, the dawn of a fortunate day